Reconnaissance
by ShadowSpires
Summary: AU. Sequel to Revelation. Following up on the information provided by the team, Bruce meets the boyfriend Robin has kept from him.
By the time he consciously registered the figure in black swooping through the window Jason was already diving towards Tim, grabbing him and tucking into a roll that got them both across the apartment and Tim behind him, sheltered from whatever threat was coming for them.

Jason did not relax at all to see Batman there, looming like a living shadow in the light streaming through the window.

The bright yellow head that poked through the window a second later did help, but not enough that he didn't stuff Tim back behind him when the tiny boy peered around him and waved at the speedster, who waved back.

Batman may technically be a good guy, but he also spent all of his time beating the fucking snot out of less-than-good guys, and Jason might not be a bad guy, but he wasn't pure as driven snow, either…

"You are Jay." Growled the Dark Knight. "You are…dating Dick Grayson."

…And Jason was perving on his son. Right.

"And what the fuck business is it of Batman's if I am?" Jay growled back, hand clenching and releasing as he wished for his knife. Not that it'd do much good against the Batman, even if it wasn't on the other side of the apartment. Not that he was planing on letting this turn into a fight with the kid here. Or at all, if he could help it.

"Jay?" Tim's small voice came from behind him.

"Sorry Kiddo," He said, allowing his voice to soften but not taking his eyes off the large man in front of him. "I'll feed the curse jar later, I promise."

"That's not it, Jay," Jason could hear the pout in Tim's voice. "I think he knows. And, if he's here without Robin, but *with* KF?"

Jason saw what he was getting at immediately.

"What's happened to Dick, Wayne?" Jason demanded, dropping all pretense of not knowing who this man was.

Wayne straightened like he'd just had a rod shoved up his ass, but the speedster kid pulled himself the rest of the way into the apartment.

"He's-" The kid broke off, looking at the older hero. When he didn't say anything, he continued. "-alright for now, but he got hit with something new of Poison Ivy's and his temp.'s going up pretty continuously. Not real fast, but steady."

Jason crossed his arm to take a more aggressive stance, but quickly dropped them again to keep Tim corralled behind him when the fearless, curious boy tried to step around him to get a better look at the heroes invading their apartment.

"And?" He demanded. "What the fuc- What's that got to do with me? Why're you here crowding up my place when you should be figuring out how to fix him?"

Batman glared at this coarse boy in front of him. He knew a little of the history between his son and these boys, but he had not realized their relationship had progressed to…this. To the point that in the agonized throes of Ivy's sexualized pollen he would cry out for this boy. Yet he would not bring him home to introduce him.

"You're presence has been…requested." He growled

Alarm flared within Jason. They'd agreed to keep their relationship a secret from Daddy Bats until Jason was 18 and could fight for custody of Tim, and hopefully not until after he won it. When news of their relationship leaked Jason's life would go under the microscope. Neither of them wanted that to happen at all, but even less so when Tim's safety was on the line.

They knew that Wayne wasn't exactly bad at secrets, but it was easier somehow for it to be a secret if it was a secret from everyone. And Dick might trust Wayne, and Jason trusted Dick, but that didn't mean that Jason was going to trust Tim's safety to someone he'd never met; no matter how much his boyfriend trusted him.

Dick knew that. For him to have told Wayne, without consulting Jason-

"He's not dying, is he?" He asked and he could hear the alarm in his voice, despite his best efforts to control it, even before he felt Tim stiffen behind him.

"No!" Wally yelped out. Then turned to Batman. "He's not, right? I know you said it was urgent, but he's not really going to die, right?"

Batman looked between the two older boys.

"His condition is not currently fatal, but if it continues on this trajectory it will become so within the next 6 hours."

"Six hours? The fuck is wrong with the kid?" Jay demanded, starting to get truly scared. "No, screw that, explanations later, take me to Dick now."

Bruce wanted to argue. He really did. He wanted to question this kid; how he knew their identities, what he planed on doing with that information, what his intentions towards Dick were, what exactly he thought he was doing, dating his 14 year old son.

He knew a little about them, but not anything detailed. It hadn't been important when he thought they were just casual friends of Robin. Dick got annoyed when he investigated his friends. Now, the questions were endless, but the plain fact was that right now he did not have the time. Everything was secondary to saving his son's life.

"Come with me. Kid Flash, stay with the child."

Jason's firm denial cut straight through the start of Wally's nod and Tim's squeak of protest.

"Nu-uh, Wayne. Kid stays with me. You're crazier than you look if you think I'm gonna disappear into your lair without him, or leave him alone in Crime Alley with someone who doesn't know Gotham."

Tim made a little muffled grumbly sound behind him that told Jason he badly wanted to protest the idea that he couldn't take care of himself, but very much did not want to argue against getting to see Dick or the Bat Cave. Not that Jason wanted Tim anywhere near Wayne Manor, but there was no real way for Batman to make the connection he wouldn't be looking for anyway, and it was better than leaving the trouble-prone kid alone.

Wally looked a little insulted by the implication that he couldn't take care of a little kid, but Jason knew that Tim was perfectly capable of outsmarting the speedster. If he left him behind he'd just end up traipsing through Gotham and show up at Wayne manor anyway. Better just to bring him now, and try to curtail at least a little of the trouble he was always finding.

Batman growled, but nodded his acquiescence. He needed this boy's cooperation, no matter how much he despised the feeling of having his hands tied. This boy was the key to saving his son's life. Since West had refused to do what had to be done; insisting that Jason, as Dick boyfriend, was the only acceptable choice. He'd been passionate in his defense of the older boy, and Bruce had finally relented to the speedster's argument.

Bruce was willing to do a lot in the name of saving his Dick's life. It was almost hard for the man to believe how different a man he was than who he had been before Richard came into his life. He knew that Richard had saved him from a headlong slide into the kind of darkness people didn't come back from. He would do anything it took to save Richard, but he would always prefer the option that did not lead to his son's enmity.

At the moment, that meant allowing this unknown boy his son apparently loved into his inner sanctum. It was hard. It went against everything he had practiced and preached about safety and security. But his son trusted this boy, so he was forced to do the same.

He gestured for the boys to follow him, not wanting to think about what he would have to allow to happen. What he would have to force to happen, once they reached the cave.

Praying that this would work, despite all that.

He could not loose Dick.


End file.
